1931 Cord L29 Speedster

[Pico]

I will soon be fulfilling a long-time obsession...

[Pico]

That's not too many supports. I want everything to form perfectly.

[Kanada Kustoms]

Cool project!

[NerdmanB]

I will be watching this. The L29 is an awesome car.

[TopherMcGinnis]

These are absolutely one of my favorite cars. Cool project!

[Pico]

It's time to go to work.

[Pico]

Here are images of the car after the New York Auto Show in January 1931. I'm diggin' those Woodlites!

[Pico]

That front wheel drive pushes the engine beyond the firewall, into the driver's compartment.

[Big Messer]

A V8 would have been a better choice for this car. Fatter but shorter (and probably lighter). But designers, for various reasons, not always follow common sense. So we modelers have no choice...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Always a pleasure to see your work sir.  

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For those who don't know: Pico was one of the early adopters of 3D printing for model cars, and I've been fortunate to see his work in person for years, through the ACME club here.

He's done quite a good sized body of 3D-printed work, important cars that have never been kitted, designing his own files and even, IIRC, building his own printer in the beginning.

He's also always been very forthcoming about sharing the knowledge he's accumulated through experience and experimentation.

Edited October 10 by Ace-Garageguy
punctiliousness

[Pico]

Thanks for your kind words, Ace.

[Pico]

Primer and sanding. A tire in front, showing the intrusion for the whitewall.

[Zippi]

Nice looking print there Pico.  Love those fat fenders.

[lordairgtar]

Very cool car.

[Pico]

Some corrections.

[Pico]

Much better.

[NOBLNG]

Your bodywork looks very nice!👍

[Pico]

Thanks, I designed the entire model in Sketchup 2017; except for the Woodlite headlights, which will be the subject of a future post. Here is an image of the workspace. 

[BK9300]

16 minutes ago, Pico said:

Thanks, I designed the entire model in Sketchup 2017; 

 

I like to work in Sketchup as well, but haven't mastered making organic shapes, like fenders, hoods, etc.  Do you use native Sketchup tools, or something else, like Quadface tools?

[Mark W]

Beautiful car Pico!

Always good to see a project that was a long time coming actually  being built.

also nice to hear your background story from Bill.

[Spex84]

Whoa! I'm impressed that you're making such organic forms in Sketchup, Pico!! 

[Kanada Kustoms]

Looking good... Nice job designing it in Sketchup!

[Pico]

A word or two on Sketchup and organic (rounded) modeling: by the way it makes the mesh, it is very poorly suited to make rounded shapes. Another drawback is that in 2018, Trimble bought SK from Google and started monetizing the previously free software. It now has a free version that has a very limited functionally. To get a version that is equal to my 2017 version would cost $50 a month. Not an option, as there are several free modeling software's available, although learning them can be challenging. The two that I favor are: Fusion, that has a free hobbyist version, and Blender, which is free. I'm leaning more toward Blender, as I watch Bill Geary's "Digital Surgeon" on Facebook each day. Also, I have a course from Udemy on designing a car in Blender. Get both and see which software you feel more comfortable with. 

The reason I used SK with this body is because it is relatively simple. However, the fenders shape gave me some trouble. For instance, the front fenders are made of 4 files, made using the Curviloft plugin. I had to stitch the 4 files together, which was time consuming and left some rough edges on the print. And that is with a relatively simple shape. I attempted to design the Chrysler Norseman, but that was a bust, so I contracted the design to a digital designer, which worked very well. See the WIP on it. If you don't have the time to learn, hiring a designer though Fiverr is an option; but, beware, their quality and honesty varies widely. 

[Pico]

Designing a body in any CAD software is advanced work, so here is an example of something much easier. I like well detailed tires with sidewall logos. The logo was designed in Inkscape using a font, Cooper Black, that is similar to the Goodyear font. I downloaded an image from Inkscape into SK and intruded the outline of the image through the sidewall and intersected it. Then extruded the mesh of the letters out from the face of the sidewall; giving it an authentic look.

[BK9300]

Thanks for the info.  Sketchup is great for designing many things - vehicle bodies, not so much!